Thanks LRC.com for this gem reported at zero hedge. Russia warns of “chemical provocation” as John Bolton cites intel warning of imminent use of chemical weapons by Assad (or whatever).
You know the worst thing about Neo Cons? It’s one thing for American Power to be an evil empire, but these guys have made the USA into a big f-ing joke. I bet you CNN will take the next chemical attack (if it happens) unironically. And yet, Russia is already rolling their eyes at it. And people still think there was no coup in Ukraine, and that Obama’s problem was not intervening enough in Syria!
The whole Neocon ideology is just cover. They know that America’s democratic institutions – as they laud them – are bullshit. They know that their foreign policy has nothing to do with spreading democracy. They have to, I mean, really John Bolton? Another chemical attack, now? Even Putin calls you out on this one, easy.
It’s not about liberal democracy and American principles. It’s about American bombs and hegemony being an effective mode of power projection (in their view), and the American ideology as a stage play as an effective opiate for the masses. Neocons prefer the “American lie” to, say, the communist catechism, as the best way to structure power and rule in the world.
“Republic”-ism is an ideology which commits people to both obey and die for the military power which transcends their popular ability to influence it. And there it is, that’s the essence of Neocon ideology. Skip all the other bullshit about the Federalist Papers. It’s just a catechism for them, a labyrinth of ideas to confuse and misdirect.
Private property wealth creation, popular self-investment in the system, the cheap lever of mass media (anti-cynical population, or contained cynicism – i.e.: Trump or Bush hysteria), an unlimited military power which outflanks everyone at the margins. Boom. Way better than a Leninist hell society.
Get this right: neocons are selling you a bill of goods. Once you understand that they surely must know this, then what they are falls right into place. Yes, they do probably sincerely advocate for “American” or “democratic” institutions, but understand what that might mean to them. A means to an end. But they sell it to you as if it were an end in itself. That’s the nuance.
